SaltX and Ahlstrom-Munksjö sign development and license agreement for graphene-coated paper for energy storage applications

SaltX Technology, a Swedish energy storage company that develops and sells a technology with which energy can be stored in salt and recovered in the form of heat or cold, entered a strategic collaboration with specialty paper producer Ahlstrom-Munksjö to develop a large-scale manufacturing method where paper is coated with graphene. The graphene-coated paper will act as carrier of SaltX patented Nano Coated Salt, increasing the heat conductivity of the SaltX material by up to five times.

The method to manufacture SaltX energy storage material on paper potentially reduces the cost by up to 80% compared to existing technique. It also enables an industrial and scalable production with an initial capacity of 100,000 tons of energy storage material, which is the equivalent to 50 gigawatt hours of thermal energy storage.

During the development project, which will run for two years, SaltX and Ahlstrom-Munksjö will jointly develop and test the manufacturing process in a pilot production line. Thereafter, the companies intend to start large scale manufacturing of paper coated with graphene and Nano Coated Salt.

”The agreement with Ahlstrom-Munksjö means the largest technology leap since we invented the Nano Coated Salt. The cooperation enables us to increase our competitive advantage even further for large-scale thermal energy storage for power production, and ensures our supply can meet the growing global demand”, says Karl Bohman, CEO of SaltX Technology.

The deal also includes the key terms for a supply agreement which, upon start of volume manufacturing, provides Ahlstrom-Munksjö an exclusive license to produce and supply SaltX with energy storage material.

”We know graphene since some time, and currently assess viable methods to integrate graphene in our products within insulation paper. The market for energy storage is clearly interesting, and provided positive results in this development project, I believe we, based on our knowledge and experience bringing innovative fiber products to market, relatively quickly and effectively can start production of the SaltX energy storage material”, says Anna Bergquist, Vice President for Business Unit Insulation paper at Ahlstrom-Munksjö.